BRAZIL – General

Brazil is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At 8.5 million square kilometers (3,300,000 sq mi) and with over 211 million people, Brazil is the world’s fifth-largest country by area and the sixth-most populous. Its capital is Brasília, and its most populous city is São Paulo. The federation is composed of the union of the 26 states and the Federal District. It is the largest country to have Portuguese as an official language and the only one in the Americas; it is also one of the most multicultural and ethnically diverse nations, due to over a century of mass immigration from around the world; as well as the most populous Roman Catholic-majority country.
Bounded by the Atlantic Ocean on the east, Brazil has a coastline of 7,491 kilometers (4,655 mi). It borders all other countries in South America except Ecuador and Chile and covers 47.3% of the continent’s land area. Its Amazon basin includes a vast tropical forest, home to diverse wildlife, a variety of ecological systems, and extensive natural resources spanning numerous protected habitats. This unique environmental heritage makes Brazil one of 17 megadiverse countries, and is the subject of significant global interest, as environmental degradation through processes like deforestation has direct impacts on global issues like climate change and biodiversity loss.
Brazil was inhabited by numerous tribal nations prior to the landing in 1500 of explorer Pedro Álvares Cabral, who claimed the area for the Portuguese Empire. Brazil remained a Portuguese colony until 1808 when the capital of the empire was transferred from Lisbon to Rio de Janeiro. In 1815, the colony was elevated to the rank of kingdom upon the formation of the United Kingdom of Portugal, Brazil, and the Algarves. Independence was achieved in 1822 with the creation of the Empire of Brazil, a unitary state governed under a constitutional monarchy and a parliamentary system. Due to its rich culture and history, the country ranks thirteenth in the world by number of UNESCO World Heritage Sites.
Brazil is a regional and middle power, and an emerging power. Brazil is classified as an upper-middle-income economy by the World Bank and a newly industrialized country with the largest share of global wealth in South America. It is considered an advanced emerging economy, having the twelfth largest GDP in the world by nominal, and eighth by PPP measures. It is one of the world’s major breadbaskets, being the largest producer of coffee for the last 150 years. However, the country maintains high amounts of corruption, crime, and social inequality.

Capital: Brasília 15°47′S 47°52′W
Largest City: São Paulo 23°33′S 46°38′W
Official Language: Portuguese.
Ethnic groups: 47.73% White, 43.13% Mixed, 7.61% Black, 1.09% East Asian, 0.43% Indigenous
Religion: 88.8% Christianity —64.6% Roman Catholic —22.2% Protestant —2.0% Other Christian, 8.0% No religion, 2.0% Spiritism, 1.2% Other
Area: 8,515,767 km² (3,287,956 sq mi) (5th)
Money: Real (R$) (BRL) Exchange rate (Jan 2022, xe.com): 1€ = 6.19 BR; 1US$ = 5.46 BR’ 1CA$ = 4.33 BR. Credit cards are used everywhere. Make sure to keep the transaction in BR and not let them convert to your home currency as exchange rates are high. ATMs are common but limit withdrawal amounts to 1000 BR and charge about US$5 per withdrawal.
GDP (PPP) per capita: $15,642 (84th)
Gini (2019): 53.4 high · 10th
Driving side: right
Country code: +55
Electrical plug: European 2-prong. 220 V, 60 Hz and 127 V, 60 Hz
Date format: dd/mm/yyyy (CE)

ITINERARY
Starting on the NE state of Amapa the itinerary involved flying or taking buses aggressively seeing primarily the capitals of each state and as many of the NM sites in each of those cities.
North Brazil: Amapa: 13 hour Hilux to Macapa; Para: fly Macapa to Belem; Para inland: fly Belem to Santarem; Amazonas: 2-day boat on Amazon to Manaus; Roraima:13-hour bus to Boa Vista;

Observations on Brazil 
1. People. In the north, Brazilians are much more multiracial (67%) and white (~25%) than countries to the north like the Guyanas. Black people especially the farther south are one goes, are conspicuously uncommon. Racist feelings also increase the farther south one goes. The women don’t seem to age well, are slim when young but then many are overweight with large bums and breasts.
Language. Brazilians are 99.9% unilingual Portuguese and generally not very intuitive to figure things out. So I relied heavily on Google Translate. Pronunciation of Portuguese must be perfect or they don’t understand – I have thus given up trying and just us GT. People from Portugal even don’t understand Brazilian Portuguese!
The people seem to have had a rote learning schooling and are generally not very intuitive. Using obvious sign language rarely works. For example, I wanted to find the cutlery in the hostel in Recife. The fellow was holding a spoon and I pointed at it and shrugged my shoulders holding out my hands. It was no use. I wanted hot water and said agua (water) and pointed at the stove. It was no use. The word for hot is quente but you still have to pronounce it right to have any hope. You must pronounce Portuguese perfectly or they don’t understand.
2. The Amazon. The biggest river in the world by volume, it flows through a relatively flat country for much of its length, making it extremely wide – my guess would be over 2-3 km for most of its length. The water is muddy brown until one gets all the way to Manaus when it turns to clear blue on one of its major tributaries – the Rio Negor is the other major tributary that contributes the muddy brown colour. There are multiple channels, and it often devolves to large lakes that make driving along with it laborious – the roads need to go a long way north and south before being able to turn east and west and then must return the same long distance to reach the river again where most towns and cities are. This makes driving and taking a bus difficult. Flying and taking a boat are much more viable options.
The high watermark on the trees is at least 2 metres above water level when the many islands in the river disappear. When flooded the roads are even less navigable.
3. Deforestation. Much advertised, it is not so visible from the river. Most of the way from Belem to Manaus is a lot of bush. I flew from Boa Vista to Brazilia and deforestation is rampant from the air. As one gets to the south Amazon (Acre, Rondonia, Matto Grosso North), deforestation is marked.
4. Government. Corruption seems the universal complaint. I actually met a Bolsonaro supporter, but he was a businessman.
5. Covid. I wasn’t asked for Covid tests at immigration but had to show my vaccination cards. Masking is not common. I was able to obtain my booster of Phiser in Macapa for free at a drive-up clinic. It took about 5 minutes and few questions were asked. I was even offered the choice of four vaccines.
6. Transportation. Buses are some of the best in the world with many lines and many possibilities for every destination. Most are double-decker with luxury seats on the bottom deck – 4 rows of three across that go almost completely flat (avoid the back row as they don’t recline completely). All seats on both levels recline almost completely. Usually, there are USB plugs to charge electronics. Baggage is very safe as one is issued matching claim tickets. All have toilets.
Uber is everywhere. I have not used Uber much before but it is an incredibly well-designed taxi app. Prices are about half normal taxis. Share taxis don’t exist as in many other parts of the world.
7. Food. I am finding Brazilian food almost unpalatable. The common snack food is deep-fried pastry with hot dogs, other meat, or meat/veg combinations inside. Buffets are commonly based on 2 or three meat casseroles with large chunks of meat that look awful.
I am missing meals, drinking a lot of coffee, and trying to find hamburgers/fries and pizza for the main meal. Bob’s Milkshakes and Burger King have become favourites.
8. Accommodation. Hostels are available using Hostelworld and Booking.com, depending on region. Lists places with the lowest price first to find the hostels. I can usually stay everywhere for 35-60 BR (7-12 US$).

HISTORY
Some of the earliest human remains found in the Americas, Luzia Woman, provide evidence of human habitation going back at least 11,000 years. The earliest pottery ever found in the Western Hemisphere was excavated in the Amazon basin of Brazil and radiocarbon dated to 8,000 years ago (6000 BC). The pottery was found near Santarém and provides evidence that the tropical forest region supported a complex prehistoric culture. The Marajoara culture flourished on Marajó in the Amazon delta from 400 CE to 1400 CE, developing sophisticated pottery, social stratification, large populations, mound-building, and complex social formations such as chiefdoms.
Around the time of the Portuguese arrival, the territory of current day Brazil had an estimated indigenous population of 7 million people, mostly semi-nomadic, who subsisted on hunting, fishing, gathering, and migrant agriculture. The indigenous population of Brazil comprised several large indigenous ethnic groups (e.g. the Tupis, Guaranis, Gês, and Arawaks).
Before the arrival of the Europeans, the boundaries between these groups and their subgroups were marked by wars that arose from differences in culture, language and moral beliefs. These wars also involved large-scale military actions on land and water, with cannibalistic rituals on prisoners of war. While heredity had some weight, leadership status was more subdued over time, than allocated in succession ceremonies and conventions. Slavery among the Indians had a different meaning than it had for Europeans since it originated from a diverse socioeconomic organization, in which asymmetries were translated into kinship relations.
Portuguese colonization. Following the 1494 Treaty of Tordesillas, the land now called Brazil was claimed for the Portuguese Empire on 22 April 1500 by Pedro Álvares Cabral. The Portuguese encountered indigenous peoples divided into several tribes, most of whom spoke languages of the Tupi–Guarani family and fought among themselves.^[53] Though the first settlement was founded in 1532, Colonization effectively began in 1534,
In the first two centuries of colonization, Indigenous and European groups lived in constant war. By the mid-16th century, cane sugar had become Brazil’s most important export, while slaves purchased in Sub-Saharan Africa in the slave market of Western Africa^[62] (not only those from Portuguese allies of their colonies in Angola and Mozambique), had become its largest import, to cope with plantations of sugarcane, due to increasing international demand for Brazilian sugar. Portuguese Brazil received more than 2.8 million slaves from Africa between the years of 1500 to 1800.
By the end of the 17th century, sugarcane exports began to decline and the discovery of gold in the 1690s would become the new backbone of the colony’s economy, fostering a Brazilian Gold Rush which attracted thousands of new settlers to Brazil from Portugal and all Portuguese colonies around the world. This increased level of immigration in turn caused some conflicts between newcomers and old settlers.
Portuguese expeditions known as Bandeiras gradually advanced the Portugal colonial original frontiers in South America to approximately the current Brazilian borders. In this era other European powers tried to colonize parts of Brazil, in incursions that the Portuguese had to fight, notably the French in Rio during the 1560s, in Maranhão during the 1610s, and the Dutch in Bahia and Pernambuco, during the Dutch–Portuguese War, after the end of Iberian Union.
The Portuguese colonial administration in Brazil had two objectives that would ensure colonial order and the monopoly of Portugal’s wealthiest and largest colony: to keep under control and eradicate all forms of slave rebellion and resistance, such as the Quilombo of Palmares, and to repress all movements for autonomy or independence, such as the Minas Conspiracy.
United Kingdom with Portugal. In late 1807, Spanish and Napoleonic forces threatened the security of continental Portugal, causing Prince Regent João, in the name of Queen Maria I, to move the royal court from Lisbon to Rio de Janeiro.^[77] There they established some of Brazil’s first financial institutions, such as its local stock exchanges and its National Bank, additionally ending the Portuguese monopoly on Brazilian trade and opening Brazil to other nations. In 1809, in retaliation for being forced into exile, the Prince Regent ordered the Portuguese conquest of French Guiana.
With the end of the Peninsular War in 1814, the courts of Europe demanded that Queen Maria I and Prince Regent João return to Portugal, deeming it unfit for the head of an ancient European monarchy to reside in a colony. In 1815, to justify continuing to live in Brazil, where the royal court had thrived for six years, the Crown established the United Kingdom of Portugal, Brazil, and the Algarves, thus creating a plura-continental transatlantic monarchic state. However, the leadership in Portugal, resentful of the new status of its larger colony, continued to demand the return of the court to Lisbon (v. Liberal Revolution of 1820). In 1821, acceding to the demands of revolutionaries who had taken the city of Porto, D. João VI departed for Lisbon. There he swore an oath to the new constitution, leaving his son, Prince Pedro de Alcântara, as Regent of the Kingdom of Brazil.
Independent empire. Tensions between Portuguese and Brazilians increased and the Portuguese Cortes, guided by the new political regime imposed by the 1820 Liberal Revolution, tried to re-establish Brazil as a colony.^[83] The Brazilians refused to yield, and Prince Pedro decided to stand with them, declaring the country’s independence from Portugal on 7 September 1822.^[84] A month later, Prince Pedro was declared the first Emperor of Brazil, with the royal title of Dom Pedro I, resulting in the foundation of the Empire of Brazil.
The Brazilian War of Independence, which had already begun along this process, spread through the northern, northeastern regions and in Cisplatina province.^[86] The last Portuguese soldiers surrendered on 8 March 1824; Portugal officially recognized Brazil on 29 August 1825.
On 7 April 1831, worn down by years of administrative turmoil and political dissent with both liberal and conservative sides of politics, including an attempt of republican secession^[89] and unreconciled to the way that absolutists in Portugal had given in the succession of King John VI, Pedro I went to Portugal to reclaim his daughter’s crown, abdicating the Brazilian throne in favor of his five-year-old son and heir (who thus became the Empire’s second monarch, with the royal title of Dom Pedro II).
As the new Emperor could not exert his constitutional powers until he came of age, a regency was set up by the National Assembly.^[91] In the absence of a charismatic figure who could represent a moderate face of power, during this period a series of localized rebellions took place, such as the Cabanagem in Grão-Pará Province, the Malê Revolt in Salvador da Bahia, the Balaiada (Maranhão), the Sabinada (Bahia), and the Ragamuffin War, which began in Rio Grande do Sul and was supported by Giuseppe Garibaldi. These emerged from the dissatisfaction of the provinces with the central power, coupled with old and latent social tensions peculiar to a vast, slaveholding, and newly independent nation-state. This period of internal political and social upheaval, which included the Praieira revolt in Pernambuco, was overcome only at the end of the 1840s, years after the end of the regency, which occurred with the premature coronation of Pedro II in 1841.
During the last phase of the monarchy, internal political debate centered on the issue of slavery. The Atlantic slave trade was abandoned in 1850, as a result of the British Aberdeen Act, but only in May 1888 after a long process of internal mobilization and debate for an ethical and legal dismantling of slavery in the country, was the institution formally abolished.
The foreign-affairs policies of the monarchy dealt with issues with the countries of the Southern Cone with whom Brazil had borders. Long after the Cisplatine War that resulted in independence for Uruguay, Brazil won three international wars during the 58-year reign of Pedro II. These were the Platine War, the Uruguayan War and the devastating Paraguayan War, the largest war effort in Brazilian history.
Although there was no desire among the majority of Brazilians to change the country’s form of government, on 15 November 1889, in disagreement with the majority of Army officers, as well as with rural and financial elites (for different reasons), the monarchy was overthrown by a military coup. 15 November is now Republic Day, a national holiday.
Early republic. The early republican government was nothing more than a military dictatorship, with the army dominating affairs both in Rio de Janeiro and in the states. Freedom of the press disappeared and elections were controlled by those in power. Not until 1894, following an economic crisis and a military one, did civilians take power, remaining there until October 1930.
If in relation to its foreign policy, the country in this first republican period maintained a relative balance characterized by success in resolving border disputes with neighboring countries, only broken by the Acre War (1899–1902) and its involvement in World War I (1914–1918), followed by a failed attempt to exert a prominent role in the League of Nations; Internally, from the crisis of Encilhamento and the Armada Revolts, a prolonged cycle of financial, political and social instability began until the 1920s, keeping the country besieged by various rebellions, both civilian and military.
Little by little, a cycle of general instability sparked by these crises undermined the regime to such an extent that in the wake of the murder of his running mate, the defeated opposition presidential candidate Getúlio Vargas, supported by most of the military, successfully led the Revolution of 1930. Vargas and the military were supposed to assume power temporarily, but instead closed down Congress, extinguished the Constitution, ruled with emergency powers, and replaced the states’ governors with his own supporters.
In the 1930s, three failed attempts to remove Vargas and his supporters from power occurred in 1932, 1935, and 1938. The 1935 uprising created a security crisis in which Congress transferred more power to the executive branch. The 1937 coup d’état resulted in the cancellation of the 1938 election, formalized Vargas as dictator, beginning the Estado Novo era, which was noted for government brutality and censorship of the press.
Foreign policy during the Vargas years was marked by World War II. Brazil remained neutral until August 1942, when the country entered on the allied side, after suffering retaliation by Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy, in a strategic dispute over the South Atlantic. In addition to its participation in the battle of the Atlantic, Brazil also sent an expeditionary force to fight in the Italian campaign.
With the Allied victory in 1945 and the end of the fascist regimes in Europe, Vargas’s position became unsustainable and he was swiftly overthrown in another military coup, with democracy “reinstated” by the same army that had ended it 15 years earlier. Vargas committed suicide in August 1954 amid a political crisis, after having returned to power by election in 1950.
Contemporary era. Several brief interim governments followed Vargas’s suicide. Juscelino Kubitschek became president in 1956 and assumed a conciliatory posture towards the political opposition that allowed him to govern without major crises.^[137] The economy and industrial sector grew remarkably, but his greatest achievement was the construction of the new capital city of Brasília, inaugurated in 1960.
The new regime was intended to be transitory but gradually closed in on itself and became a full dictatorship with the promulgation of the Fifth Institutional Act in 1968. Oppression was not limited to those who resorted to guerrilla tactics to fight the regime, but also reached institutional opponents, artists, journalists, and other members of civil society inside and outside the country through the infamous “Operation Condor”. Despite its brutality, like other authoritarian regimes, due to an economic boom, known as an “economic miracle”, the regime reached a peak in popularity in the early 1970s.
Slowly, however, the wear and tear of years of dictatorial power that had not slowed the repression, even after the defeat of the leftist guerrillas, plus the inability to deal with the economic crises of the period and popular pressure, made an opening policy inevitable, which from the regime side was led by Generals Ernesto Geisel and Golbery do Couto e Silva.^[151] With the enactment of the Amnesty Law in 1979, Brazil began a slow return to democracy, which was completed during the 1980s.
Civilians returned to power in 1985 when José Sarney assumed the presidency. He became unpopular during his tenure through failure to control the economic crisis and hyperinflation he inherited from the military regime. Sarney’s unsuccessful government led to the election in 1989 of the almost-unknown Fernando Collor, subsequently impeached by the National Congress in 1992.
Collor was succeeded by his vice-president, Itamar Franco, who appointed Fernando Henrique Cardoso Minister of Finance. In 1994, Cardoso produced a highly successful Plano Real,^[154] that, after decades of failed economic plans made by previous governments attempting to curb hyperinflation, finally stabilized the Brazilian economy. Cardoso won the 1994 election, and again in 1998.
The peaceful transition of power from Cardoso to his main opposition leader, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (elected in 2002 and re-elected in 2006), was seen as proof that Brazil had achieved long-sought political stability. However, sparked by indignation and frustrations accumulated over decades from corruption, police brutality, inefficiencies of the political establishment and public service, numerous peaceful protests erupted in Brazil from the middle of the first term of Dilma Rousseff, who had succeeded Lula after winning election in 2010 and again in 2014 by narrow margins.
Rousseff was impeached by the Brazilian Congress in 2016, halfway into her second term, and replaced by her Vice-president Michel Temer, who assumed full presidential powers after Rousseff’s impeachment was accepted on 31 August. Large street protests for and against her took place during the impeachment process. The charges against her were fueled by political and economic crises along with evidence of involvement with politicians (from all the primary political parties) in several bribery and tax evasion schemes.
In 2017, the Supreme Court requested the investigation of 71 Brazilian lawmakers and nine ministers of President Michel Temer’s cabinet who were allegedly linked to the Petrobras corruption scandal. President Temer himself was also accused of corruption. According to a 2018 poll, 62% of the population said that corruption was Brazil’s biggest problem.
Through Operation Car Wash, the Federal Police of Brazil has since acted on the deviations and corruption of the PT and allied parties at that time. In the fiercely disputed 2018 elections, the controversial conservative candidate Jair Bolsonaro of the Social Liberal Party (PSL) was elected president, winning in the second round Fernando Haddad, of the Workers Party (PT), with the support of 55.13% of the valid votes.
In the early 2020s, Brazil became one of the hardest-hit countries during the COVID-19 pandemic, receiving the second-highest death toll worldwide after the United States. Experts have largely blamed the situation on the leadership of President Bolsonaro, who throughout the pandemic has repeatedly downplayed the threat of COVID-19 and dissuaded states and cities from enforcing quarantine measures, prioritizing the nation’s economy.

GEOGRAPHY
Brazil occupies a large area along the eastern coast of South America and includes much of the continent’s interior, sharing land borders with Uruguay to the south; Argentina and Paraguay to the southwest; Bolivia and Peru to the west; Colombia to the northwest; and Venezuela, Guyana, Suriname and France (French overseas region of French Guiana) to the north. It shares a border with every South American country except Ecuador and Chile.
It also encompasses a number of oceanic archipelagos, such as Fernando de Noronha, Rocas Atoll, Saint Peter and Paul Rocks, and Trindade and Martim Vaz. Its size, relief, climate, and natural resources make Brazil geographically diverse. Including its Atlantic islands, Brazil lies between latitudes 6°N and 34°S, and longitudes 28° and 74°W.
Brazil is the fifth largest country in the world, and third largest in the Americas, with a total area of 8,515,767.049 km² (3,287,956 sq mi), including 55,455 km² (21,411 sq mi) of water. It spans four time zones; from UTC−5 comprising the state of Acre and the westernmost portion of Amazonas, to UTC−4 in the western states, to UTC−3 in the eastern states (the national time), and UTC−2 in the Atlantic islands.
Brazil is the longest country in the world, spanning 4,395 km (2,731 mi) from north to south. Brazil is also the only country in the world that has the equator and the Tropic of Capricorn running through it. Brazilian topography is also diverse and includes hills, mountains, plains, highlands, and scrublands. Much of the terrain lies between 200 metres (660 ft) and 800 metres (2,600 ft) in elevation. The main upland area occupies most of the southern half of the country. The northwestern parts of the plateau consist of broad, rolling terrain broken by low, rounded hills.
The southeastern section is more rugged, with a complex mass of ridges and mountain ranges reaching elevations of up to 1,200 metres (3,900 ft). These ranges include the Mantiqueira and Espinhaço mountains and the Serra do Mar. In the north, the Guiana Highlands form a major drainage divide, separating rivers that flow south into the Amazon Basin from rivers that empty into the Orinoco River system, in Venezuela, to the north. The highest point in Brazil is the Pico da Neblina at 2,994 metres (9,823 ft), and the lowest is the Atlantic Ocean.
Brazil has a dense and complex system of rivers, one of the world’s most extensive, with eight major drainage basins, all of which drain into the Atlantic. Major rivers include the Amazon (the world’s second-longest river and the largest in terms of volume of water), the Paraná and its major tributary the Iguaçu (which includes the Iguazu Falls), the Negro, São Francisco, Xingu, Madeira, and Tapajós rivers.

CLIMATE 

Biodiversity and environment
Brazil’s large territory comprises different ecosystems, such as the Amazon rainforest, recognized as having the greatest biological diversity in the world, with the Atlantic Forest and the Cerrado, sustaining the greatest biodiversity. In the south, the Araucaria pine forest grows under temperate conditions. The rich wildlife of Brazil reflects the variety of natural habitats. Scientists estimate that the total number of plant and animal species in Brazil could approach four million, mostly invertebrates.
Larger mammals include carnivores pumas, jaguars, ocelots, rare bush dogs, and foxes, and herbivores peccaries, tapirs, anteaters, sloths, opossums, and armadillos. Deer are plentiful in the south, and many species of New World monkeys are found in the northern rain forests. Concern for the environment has grown in response to global interest in environmental issues. Brazil’s Amazon Basin is home to an extremely diverse array of fish species, including the red-bellied piranha.
By 2013, Brazil’s “dramatic policy-driven reduction in Amazon Basin deforestation” was a “global exception in terms of forest change”, according to the scientific journal Science. From 2003 to 2011, compared to all other countries in the world, Brazil had the “largest decline in annual forest loss”, as indicated in the study using high-resolution satellite maps showing global forest cover changes. The annual loss of forest cover decreased from a 2003–2004 record high of more than 40,000 square kilometres (4,000×10³ ha; 9.9×10⁶ acres; 15,000 sq mi) to a 2010–2011 low of under 20,000 square kilometres, reversing widespread deforestation from the 1970s to 2003.
In 2017, preserved native vegetation occupies 61% of the Brazilian territory. Agriculture occupied only 8% of the national territory and pastures 19.7%. In terms of comparison, in 2019, although 43% of the entire European continent has forests, only 3% of the total forest area in Europe is of native forest.

ECONOMY 
Brazil is the largest national economy in Latin America, the world’s ninth-largest economy, and the eighth-largest in purchasing power parity (PPP) according to 2018 estimates. Brazil has a mixed economy with abundant natural resources. After rapid growth in the preceding decades, the country entered an ongoing recession in 2014 amid a political corruption scandal and nationwide protests.
Its Gross domestic product (PPP) per capita was $15,919 in 2017 (77th). The country has been expanding its presence in international financial and commodities markets and is one of a group of four emerging economies called the BRIC countries. Brazil has been the world’s largest producer of coffee for the last 150 years. The country is a major exporter of soy, iron ore, pulp (cellulose), maize, beef, chicken meat, soybean meal, sugar, coffee, tobacco, cotton, orange juice, footwear, airplanes, cars, vehicle parts, gold, ethanol, semi-finished iron, among other products.
Brazil’s diversified economy includes agriculture, industry, and a wide range of services. Agriculture and allied sectors like forestry, logging, and fishing accounted for 5.1% of the GDP in 2007, Brazil is the largest producer of various agricultural commodities.
Brazil is one of the largest producers of animal proteins in the world. In 2019, the country was the world’s largest exporter of chicken meat. It was also the world’s second-largest producer of beef, the third-largest producer of milk, the fourth-largest producer of pork, and the seventh-largest producer of eggs.
In the mining sector, Brazil stands out in the extraction of iron ore (the second-highest world exporter), copper, gold, bauxite (one of the five largest producers in the world), manganese (one of the five largest producers in the world), tin (one of the largest producers in the world), niobium (concentrates 98% of reserves known to the world, and nickel. In terms of precious stones, Brazil is the world’s largest producer of amethyst, topaz, agate and one of the main producers of tourmaline, emerald, aquamarine, and garnet.
Industry in Brazil – from automobiles, steel, and petrochemicals to computers, aircraft, and consumer durables – accounted for 30.8% of the gross domestic product. Industry is highly concentrated in metropolitan São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Campinas, Porto Alegre, and Belo Horizonte. Brazil has become the fourth largest car market in the world. Major export products include aircraft, electrical equipment, automobiles, ethanol, textiles, footwear, iron ore, steel, coffee, orange juice, soybeans, and corned beef. In total, Brazil ranks 23rd worldwide in the value of exports. In the food industry, in 2019, Brazil was the second-largest exporter of processed foods in the world. In 2016, the country was the 2nd largest producer of pulp in the world and the 8th producer of paper. In the footwear industry, in 2019, Brazil ranked 4th among world producers. In 2019, the country was the 8th producer of vehicles and the 9th producer of steel in the world. In 2018, the chemical industry of Brazil was the 8th in the world. Although it was among the five largest world producers in 2013, Brazil’s textile industry is very little integrated into world trade.
Corruption costs Brazil almost $41 billion a year alone in 2010, with 69.9% of the country’s firms identifying the issue as a major constraint in successfully penetrating the global market. Local government corruption is so prevalent that voters perceive it as a problem only if it surpasses certain levels, and only if a local media e.g. a radio station is present to divulge the findings of corruption charges.^[295] Initiatives, like this exposure, strengthen awareness which is indicated by Transparency International’s Corruption Perceptions Index; ranking Brazil 69th out of 178 countries in 2012. The purchasing power in Brazil is eroded by the so-called Brazil cost.
Energy. Brazil is the world’s tenth-largest energy consumer with much of its energy coming from renewable sources, particularly hydroelectricity and ethanol; the Itaipu Dam is the world’s largest hydroelectric plant by energy generation, and the country has other large plants like Belo Monte and Tucuruí. The first car with an ethanol engine was produced in 1978 and the first airplane engine ran on ethanol in 2005.
In total electricity generation, in 2019 Brazil reached 170,000 megawatts of installed capacity, more than 75% from renewable sources (the majority, hydroelectric plants). In 2019, Brazil had 217 hydroelectric plants in operation, with an installed capacity of 98,581 MW, 60.16% of the country’s energy generation. Brazil is one of the 5 largest hydroelectric energy producers in the world (2nd place in 2017).
In 2019, wind energy represented 9% of the energy generated in the country.^[306] In 2019, it was estimated that the country had an estimated wind power generation potential of around 522 GW (this, only onshore), enough energy to meet three times the country’s current demand.^[307][308] Brazil is one of the 10 largest wind energy producers in the world (8th place in 2019, with 2.4% of world production).
As of June 2021, according to ONS, the total installed capacity of photovoltaic solar was 9.7 GW, with an average capacity factor of 23%. Some of the most irradiated Brazilian States are Minas Gerais, Bahia and Goiás. In 2019, solar power represented 1.27% of the energy generated in the country. In 2020, Brazil was the 14th country in the world in terms of installed solar power (7.8 GW).
In 2020, Brazil was the 2nd largest country in the world in the production of energy through biomass (energy production from solid biofuels and renewable waste), with 15,2 GW installed.
Recent oil discoveries in the pre-salt layer have opened the door for a large increase in oil production. In the beginning of 2020, in the production of oil and natural gas, the country exceeded 4 million barrels of oil equivalent per day, for the first time. In January this year, 3.168 million barrels of oil per day and 138.753 million cubic meters of natural gas were extracted.
Tourism. Tourism in Brazil is a growing sector and key to the economy of several regions of the country. In the list of world tourist destinations, in 2018, Brazil was the 48th most visited country, with 6.6 million tourists (and revenues of 5.9 billion dollars).
Natural areas are its most popular tourism product, a combination of ecotourism with leisure and recreation, mainly sun and beach, and adventure travel, as well as cultural tourism. Among the most popular destinations are the Amazon Rainforest, beaches and dunes in the Northeast Region, the Pantanal in the Center-West Region, beaches at Rio de Janeiro and Santa Catarina, cultural tourism in Minas Gerais, and business trips to São Paulo.
The TTCI report notes Brazil’s main weaknesses: its ground transport infrastructure remains underdeveloped (ranked 116th), with the quality of roads ranking in 105th place; and the country continues to suffer from a lack of price competitiveness (ranked 114th), due in part to high ticket taxes and airport charges, as well as high prices and high taxation. Safety and security have improved significantly: 75th in 2011, up from 128th in 2008.
Health. The Brazilian public health system, the Unified Health System (Sistema Único de Saúde – SUS), is managed and provided by all levels of government, being the largest system of this type in the world. On the other hand, private healthcare systems play a complementary role.
Public health services are universal and offered to all citizens of the country for free. However, the construction and maintenance of health centers and hospitals are financed by taxes, and the country spends about 9% of its GDP on expenditures in the area. In 2012, Brazil had 1.85 doctors and 2.3 hospital beds for every 1,000 inhabitants.
Despite all the progress made since the creation of the universal health care system in 1988, there are still several public health problems in Brazil. In 2006, the main points to be solved were the high infant (2.51%) and maternal mortality rates (73.1 deaths per 1000 births.
The number of deaths from non-communicable diseases, such as cardiovascular diseases (151.7 deaths per 100,000 inhabitants) and cancer (72.7 deaths per 100,000 inhabitants), also has a considerable impact on the health of the Brazilian population. Finally, external but preventable factors such as car accidents, violence, and suicide caused 14.9% of all deaths in the country.^[369] The Brazilian health system was ranked 125th among the 191 countries evaluated by the World Health Organization (WHO) in 2000.
Education.
According to the IBGE, in 2019, the literacy rate of the population was 93.4%, meaning that 11.3 million (6.6% of the population) people are still illiterate in the country, Brazil’s private institutions tend to be more exclusive and offer better quality education, so many high-income families send their children there. The result is a segregated educational system that reflects extreme income disparities and reinforces social inequality. However, efforts to change this are making an impact.

DEMOGRAPHICS

Race and ethnicity. In 2008, 48.43% of the population (about 92 million) described themselves as White; 43.80% (about 83 million) as Pardo (brown), 6.84% (about 13 million) as Black; 0.58% (about 1.1 million) as East Asian (officially called amarela or yellow); and 0.28% (about 536 thousand) as Amerindian (officially called indígena, Indigenous), while 0.07% (about 130 thousand) did not declare their race.
In 2007, the National Indian Foundation estimated that Brazil has 67 different uncontacted tribes, up from their estimate of 40 in 2005. Brazil is believed to have the largest number of uncontacted peoples in the world.
Since the arrival of the Portuguese in 1500, considerable genetic mixing between Amerindians, Europeans, and Africans have taken place in all regions of the country (with European ancestry being dominant nationwide according to the vast majority of all autosomal studies undertaken covering the entire population, accounting for between 65% to 77%).
Brazilian society is more markedly divided by social class lines, although a high-income disparity is found between race groups, so racism and classism often overlap. Socially significant closeness to one racial group is taken in account more in the basis of appearance (phenotypes) rather than ancestry, to the extent that full siblings can pertain to different “racial” groups.
Race and ethnicity in Brazil. White (47.7%), Pardo (Multiracial (43.1%), Black (7.6%), East Asian (1.1%), Natives (0.4%)
Socioeconomic factors are also significant because a minority of pardos are likely to start declaring themselves White or Black if socially upward. Skin color and facial features do not line quite well with ancestry (usually, Afro-Brazilians are evenly mixed and European ancestry is dominant in Whites and pardos with a significant non-European contribution, but the individual variation is great).
The brown population (officially called pardo in Portuguese, also colloquially moreno) is a broad category that includes caboclos (assimilated Amerindians in general, and descendants of Whites and Natives), mulatos (descendants of primarily Whites and Afro-Brazilians) and cafuzos (descendants of Afro-Brazilians and Natives). People of considerable Amerindian ancestry form the majority of the population in the Northern, Northeastern and Center-Western regions.
Higher percents of Blacks, mulattoes and tri-racials can be found in the eastern coast of the Northeastern region from Bahia to Paraíba and also in northern Maranhão, southern Minas Gerais, and in eastern Rio de Janeiro. From the 19th century, Brazil opened its borders to immigration. About five million people from over 60 countries migrated to Brazil between 1808 and 1972, most of them of Portuguese, Italian, Spanish, German, Ukrainian, Polish, Jewish, Russian, Chinese, Japanese, and Arab origin. Brazil has the second-largest Jewish community in Latin America making up 0.06% of its population.
Religion. Catholicism (64.6%), Protestantism (22.2%), Spiritism (2.0%), Other (3.2%), No religion (8.0%)
Roman Catholicism is the country’s predominant faith. Brazil has the world’s largest Catholic population. However, in the last ten years Protestantism, particularly in forms of Pentecostalism and Evangelicalism, has spread in Brazil, while the proportion of Catholics has dropped significantly. 
Language. The official language of Brazil is Portuguese, which almost all of the population speaks and is virtually the only language used in newspapers, radio, television, and for business and administrative purposes.
One hundred and eighty Amerindian languages are spoken in remote areas and a significant number of other languages are spoken by immigrants and their descendants. 
Culture. The core culture of Brazil is derived from Portuguese culture, because of its strong colonial ties with the Portuguese Empire. Among other influences, the Portuguese introduced the Portuguese language, Roman Catholicism, and colonial architectural styles. The culture was, however, also strongly influenced by African, indigenous, and non-Portuguese European cultures and traditions.
Cuisine
A typical meal consists mostly of rice and beans with beef, salad, french fries, and a fried egg. Often, it is mixed with cassava flour (farofa). Fried potatoes, fried cassava, fried banana, fried meat, and fried cheese are very often eaten in lunch and served in most typical restaurants. Popular snacks are pastel (a fried pastry); coxinha (a variation of chicken croquete); pão de queijo (cheese bread and cassava flour/tapioca); pamonha (corn and milk paste); esfirra (a variation of Lebanese pastry); kibbeh (from Arabic cuisine); empanada (pastry) and empada, little salt pies filled with shrimps or heart of palm.
Sports
The most popular sport in Brazil is football. The Brazilian men’s national team is ranked among the best in the world according to the FIFA World Rankings, and has won the World Cup tournament a record five times.
Volleyball, basketball, auto racing, and martial arts also attract large audiences. The Brazil men’s national volleyball team, for example, currently holds the titles of the World League, World Grand Champions Cup, World Championship and the World Cup. In auto racing, three Brazilian drivers have won the Formula One world championship eight times.